NBA
Star Center Dwight Howard Traded To Brooklyn Nets For Mozgov And Draft Picks
Dwight Howard will be going to the Brooklyn Nets. Charlotte Hornets have agreed to trade the 32-year-old Center to the Nets in exchange for Center Timothy Mozgov, two future second-round draft picks and an undisclosed amount of currency.
Charlotte is finalizing a deal to send Dwight Howard to the Brooklyn Nets for Timofey Mozgov, league sources tell ESPN. Nets will save $17M on deal in 2019-20 season, allowing them to create two max salary slots.
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2018
THREE MOVES IN THREE YEARS
A deal will not be completed until July 6, 2018. Timothy Mozgov has a current 32.7 million and two years left on his contract. This leaves the Nets multi-million dollar cap space. Which allows them to create room for 2019-2020 NBA free agency.
Deal includes Nets sending two future second-round picks and cash to Charlotte for Howard, who has a $23.8M expiring contract. https://t.co/v4sOImIHl2
— Adrian Wojnarowski (@wojespn) June 20, 2018
According to former NBA player Brendan Haywood, Hornets players simply got “sick and tired” of Howard’s antics, per a tweet from Sports Illustrated’s Howard Beck.
"The (Hornets) locker room did not like Dwight Howard," @bwood_33 says on @SiriusXMNBA "Guys were just sick and tired of his act."
— Howard Beck (@HowardBeck) June 20, 2018
Howard has a long history of alienating teammates with his demeanor. Dwight’s former Atlanta Hawks players were “screaming with jubilation” when word came down in June of 2017 that Howard was heading to Charlotte.
Howard has officially entered the “hot potato” phase of his career. Most noteworthy is that this will be Dwight’s third Eastern Conference team in as many seasons since putting pen to paper on a three year, $70.5 million contract with Atlanta two years ago. Timofey meanwhile had one of the ugliest contracts in league history and missed most of last season due to injury. This trade is equal parts weird, hilarious, and sad.
The Brooklyn Nets Are On The Rise
League sources stated that the Charlotte Hornets will receive the Nets’ second-round pick in the NBA Draft this Thursday evening. This is a solid move by the Brooklyn nets which could possibly gain them a brighter future in the league.
Nets GM Sean Marks might have something else cooking. As reported by ESPN’s Bobby Marks, moving Mozgov’s albatross of a contract means that Allen Crabbe’s player option is currently the only guaranteed money on Brooklyn’s books for the 2019-20 season.
As a result, it could leave the Nets with more than $60 million (about two max slots) to play with next offseason. Brooklyn is a major-market franchise (technically) that hasn’t eclipsed 30 wins in three seasons. The allure of names like Kawhi Leonard, Klay Thompson, Kyrie Irving, and Jimmy Butler is obvious.
